Here’s a story I did for Phoenix14News about the new virtual bulletin board and social media website Pinterest (of which I happen to be obsessed with!). What do you think, will Pinterest overtake Facebook?

If you want to follow me on Pinterest, look me up: Addie Michelle.

**After my story aired, I came across a new website similar to Pinterest called Gentlemint. It’s basically the male equivalent to Pinterest and is full of mustaches, high-calorie food recipes and other manly things.

Look! This week I got to produce, write, and anchor the Phoenix 14 News’ web show called the Thursday Update. The update is a mid-week mini show that we do to keep people on campus informed about news that may have happened during the week. Fortunately (for me at least), there was a lot that went on that could fill the show. Watch it here:

It was my first time ever trying to produce and it was a lot different from reporting, for sure. I don’t know if there’s a future for me there, but it was definitely a good experience trying my hand in the producer role.

This is the very FIRST package that I did for Phoenix 14 News. I was very hesitant to take it because I was a freshman and had no idea how to even work the editing suites, but they needed it to be done, so I obliged. I also got to go live for the first time. Pretty cool stuff.

ELON, N.C. – Two years ago, a couple approached journalist Elizabeth Kolbert at Washington University in St. Louis and asked why people should care about global warming. Kolbert simply responded, “Do you like to eat?”

Thursday night, she posed the same question to an audience at Elon University’s McCrary Theater.

According to Kolbert, a two-time author and staff writer for The New Yorker, agriculture and climate change are closely intertwined, and if the world wants to have an adequate supply of food in the future, it needs to take steps now to get global warming under control.

“Climate change is often presented as a problem about the melting ice and sea level rise,” Kolbert said. “But you could really argue that food production is going to be the biggest problem (and) it’s going to affect people most immediately where food is already tight.”

Carbon dioxide traps the sun’s energy and heat in the atmosphere, she said, and because the earth is always radiating its energy, the combination of the two will eventually warm the planet.

Already, she said, growing conditions in fertile areas of California, Africa, Australia and the Mediterranean have worsened because of greenhouse gases, while conditions for farming have improved in Greenland, Siberia and northern Canada – places that were, up until recently, impossible to farm.

According to Kolbert, droughts will be drier, rainy seasons will be wetter and global food production will be thrown off balance. And that’s why food prices spiked to near record levels in 2008 and 2010.

“This is what you’d expect in a warming world,” she said. “And food prices right now are quite high globally – a the product of lots of extreme weather his year.”

Kolbert said if the world wants to continue to have food to eat it can no longer remain passive in its efforts to reverse climate change.

According to her, Americans, are the primary contributors of carbon dioxide emissions, and she said that people can no longer be docile in the matter. Kolbert urges them to demand lawmakers enact change, especially if they want to continue to have enough to eat.

“People need to be involved politically,” Kolbert said. “I think that all the things we do on an individual level…don’t amount to anything unless we take concerted national efforts.”

Results from a study on property loss and violent weather showed that the insurance industry spent more than $2.5 billion this year to replace or repair property damage resulting from natural disasters.

James Addison, the president of the National Institute of Insurance Underwriters and Claims Adjusters President, said at a conference Thursday that the industry saw a 25-percent increase from money spent this year than last year to cover damages from hhhurricanes, tornadoes and floods.

“These projections are very preliminary,” Addison said. “The total number of claims and their costs could vary depending on the amount of federal aid that was provided, but it still was a costly year for the insurance industry.”

Addison noted that severe flooding in Texas, California and the Southeastern United States accounted for much of the 25-percent increase. Hurricanes that struck Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, and Florida accounted for about $512 million alone.

Some insurance experts who attended the conference are questioning whether changes in the global weather patterns are responsible for the increase in severe weather.

For more information, contact NIIUCA at its headquarters by telephone at 1-(800)-555-0000, or mail at One Insurance Plaza, 2305 Connecticut Ave. NW, Washington, D.C., 20071.

BURLINGTON, N.C. – A 12-year-old girl landed her family’s four-passenger plane only 10 feet from Interstate 51 after her father lost consciousness on an early-morning trip back from Grand Rapids, Mich., according to officials.

The girl, Alyssa Shanahan of Burlington, was pressed into action and wound up landing the plane, which overshot the runway, skidded across an open field and smashed through a chain link fence alongside the interstate’s northbound lane at 4:05 p.m. during rush hour, according to police. No one on the ground was injured.

“It could have been much worse,” said Fire Chief Tony Sullivan. “There were a lot of startled people when that plane came at them.”

Police say that James Shanahan was piloting the plane for his wife, Mary, and daughters, Adrienne and Alyssa, when he lost consciousness, causing the plane to begin a slow dive 100 miles east of Greensboro.

“There was nothing I could do,” Mary said. “I couldn’t reach the controls. And even if I could have, I don’t think I could have helped.”

According to Mary, James, who has 30 years of flying experience, had been complaining about dizziness and shortness of breath before the incident occurred.

Police say that James was about to contact the control tower at Burlington Regional Airport to request an emergency landing when he slumped over in his seat.

It was then that 4-foot-3-inch Alyssa took control of the plane, shoved her father’s arms away from the controls and feet off the rudders and responded to the control tower’s calls.

Peter Jacobs, the control tower flight manager for Burlington Regional Airport, directed other aircrafts away from the airport during the emergency and stayed in contact with Alyssa the whole time, instructing her on what to do.

“I could hear the passengers screaming in the background,” Jacobs said. “I think they were getting a bit panicky up there.”

With Jacobs’s help, Alyssa was able to bring the aircraft down, causing only minor damage to the plane’s landing gears and undercarriage.

“I was a little scared because I couldn’t reach the pedals very well,” Alyssa said. “I was more worried about my Daddy. I just wanted to get on the ground and get help for him.”

After landing, James was taken to Mercy Hospital for observation. Doctors there said he suffered an allergic reaction to a prescription medicine he had begun taking that morning, but he’s now in satisfactory condition.

Mary was treated for a broken wrist and a cut on her forehead, and Adrienne suffered only minor cuts and bruises. Alyssa was not injured.

“I’ve been flying with my Daddy since I was a little girl,” Alyssa said. “He taught me all about flying. I couldn’t be too scared because I want to be a pilot like my Daddy someday.”